Singham Again Review | Valmiki Might Reincarnate Just to Renew His IP and Stop More Ramayana Adaptations

Physics has always stayed away from Rohit Shetty’s movies, and so I was very cautious to put my thinking cap in the dustbin before entering the theater. Now, the problem is, since he is making movies about terrorism, India’s history, etc., in his cop universe movies, you can’t really part ways with rationality and logic before entering the theater. Rohit Shetty has always justified his films and their grandeur by saying that he is designing them for the single-screen audience. But the audience turn-around for the movie and the general reception towards his latest star-studded film, Singham Again, proves that the audience is getting better content. Singham Again is a tacky fan service package that even the fans would forget once they are out of the theater.

I don’t think much explanation is needed about the plot since the almost 5 minutes trailer of this film left nothing new for those who wanted to watch it on the big screen. So we are shown that Singham is now in Kashmir handling the issues there, and seeing his great work, the home ministry makes him the head of a new force named Shiva Squad. Two years later, after the formation of the squad, Singham gets intel about possible terrorist activities down south in Tamil Nadu that have some links with a dreaded gangster who controls things from Sri Lanka. Singham’s actions to neutralize his Indian operations irked him, and the retaliation resulted in the abduction of Singham’s wife, Avni. Who is this gangster, what is his motive, and how the cops of this universe manage to put an end to his tantrums is what we see in Singham Again.

At the beginning of the movie, they are literally reading the disclaimer out loud in Hindi and English. Usually, they just show it and leave it for the audience to read. Somewhere, I feel Rohit Shetty and the makers are sort of scared of the fact that milking the sentiments of Hindus to pull the audience into the theaters might backfire, like what happened with Adipurush. While I was watching this shabby adaptation of Ramayana on the screen, I thought about Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan/ Raavan, which was such a masterclass in placing an adaptation. Singham Again is basically the writers trying to protect their film by making it a Ramayana adaptation, just like how PK got away from getting slapped by placing the stickers of Gods on his cheeks.

There is this “comedy” sequence in the movie where Bajirao Singham talks to his son about his female friend, and the son teaches him about situationship. When Singham meets the home minister, they both talk about the new generation relationship terms like benching, breadcrumping, etc. In the trailer, there is one scene where Kareena’s Avni criticizes the younger generation when her son asks about the fictional side of Ramayana. The movie is basically narrated from the “dad vibes” point of view. The makers and writers are just stuck in the belief that bombarding the audience with cameos and extended cameos can make a film great. The broad strokes in the writing are so amature that you feel like asking the writer, Kshitij Patwardhan, whether he knows the value of bringing all these stars onto the screen.

While the first film, which was the remake of the Tamil film by Hari, had a hero who was more of a policeman, just like how Hari ruined the franchise by making Duraisingam an international police, Rohit Shetty is making Bajirao Singham a jingoistic caricature. The Naya Bharat, Athmanirbhar Bharat, and Veer Maratha narratives are not even subtle. And when it comes to portraying the South Indians in his movies, Rohit Shetty still has no plans to improve. The logic of Shetty is like this. We will create the Lady Singham sequence in front of Madhurai Meenakshi temple, and we will give the crowd costumes that will represent the whole of South India.

Rohit Shetty movies are largely popular for their stunt sequences where he flips multiple cars. When it comes to Singham Again, even the highly CGI-dependent action blocks look lifeless. None of them had any sort of signature, and even in the depiction of the swagger of the heroes, one could see flaws. That introduction run of Ranveer Singh felt like he was running after stepping into cow dung. And the posture of Ajay Devgn after delivering a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj dialogue felt like he had dimples in his armpit. The chase that leads to the final showdown between Ram and Ravan was literally a Scorpio advertisement.

In his default minimal expression swagger mode, Ajay Devgn becomes Bajirao Singham convincingly. Since the man is now the father of a teenager, the “aata majhi satakli” level of anger is not really there. Kareena Kapoor Khan is pretty much playing the Bhabhi role here in the typical loud style. When Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi says he feels like killing Simmba for the way he talks in the movie, I was like, the feeling is mutual, bro. And frankly, it is Rohit Shetty’s placement of humor that makes it even more irritating. Ranveer Singh was less of a Hanuman and more of a joker in the whole film. Even Kapil Sharma would cringe hearing that Colombo- Columbus joke. Deepika Padukone as Shakti Shetty, aka Lady Singham, is struggling to get the attitude, and most of her stunts were done by the editor Bunty Nagi.

Tiger Shroff, as the Lakshman equivalent, is again doing the summersaults while showing off his ripped body. Akshay Kumar, in his extended cameo, gets a sequence for him to show off, and the terrible CGI just makes it look like a joke on screen. Last but not least, Arjun Kapoor. In the AIB roast, Tanmay Bhatt mentioned how creepy Arjun’s smile was. Looking at the storytelling finesse and the other performances in the movie, Arjun, with that chunky body and creepy smile, felt like a fairly good choice to be a bad guy, whose nickname was Danger Lanka. I mean, if he was okay with that nickname, he deserved to die.

If all this hyper-nationalistic, lame adaptation of Ramayana was not enough for you to feel the goosebumps, Rohit Shetty has one more thing in his arsenal, and that is the entry of Chulbul Pandey into this universe. It seems like this year Pandey has plans to visit Sabarimala as we see him with a very thick beard. If you were a fanboy of Simmba and Sooryavanshi, this green screen reunion is the movie you were looking for, and I am pretty sure you won’t even be reading this line.